Movin' on

[Sparkle]

I'm on the road again...tra la la la. Here's why I left Alabama. I went to bed last night and saw this hump, with a paw sticking out. Bogie was cold!

I always passed by the Ave Marie Grotto on I-65. I should have kept up the habit. I thought it was going to be a wonderful Catholic Cathedral or at least a cave with some religeous significance. It cost me $5.00 to see these minatures, made by some mad priest out of scrap, glass, tiles, marbles, makeup jars. Hmmm, that's what I get for going into a tourist trap.




Y'all need to go to the Boondocking room for a report and photo of where I am now.

[Liz]

Hoo, I've always passed by that grotto too, and now that you've shown it to me, I always will! Let's hear from you when you get to Florida, ok?

[Bethers]

LOL, I've always passed that also and will continue to do so. So glad you checked it out for us, though.

[bluepinecones]

Shame on you. Do you have any idea how long it probably took that poor man to construct all those little structures?

[Sparkle]

Aw shucks, now I feel bad. Let me run back and pay them another $5.00 of my hard earned money.

[relaxing101]

Don't feel bad, Sparkle! I'm glad you saved me my $5.00!!

Bonnie

[rvgrammy1953]

Well, good....Now we don't have to stop to take a look....Sparkle already did it for us... Interesting, but not worth the $5....maybe a buck and a quarter....

[retiredhappy]

Talk about spending hard earned money for weird stuff. Okay all of you who have stopped and paid to see THE THING in Arizona, hold up your hand. They have signs for it all over Arizona and my curiousity (okay why don't we have a spell check) got the better of me. No, I'm NOT going to tell what it is.

[Paulette]

Well, can you tell how much it cost?

[Mollysmom]

Karen - I downloaded this free spell checker, then you just have to right click and choose check spelling and voilà !!!

http://www.iespell.com/download.php

[Sparkle]

I ALMOST checked out THE THING, but I convinced myself it was a tourist trap. Then when I got settled in at a campsite I Googled it. So I know what it is and trust me, don't waste your money. Unless you want to post a picture for us all. I think its a donation for a fee, isn't it?
The bad thing is just a few miles down the road from the Ave Marie Grotto is another attraction, something else Catholic, but I sailed on by, can't fool me twice...but I wonder...was it something worth seeing?

[Liz]

I'll tell you where there is something else in the area worth the stop. Just west of Cullman (and the grotto) off Rte 74 is a covered bridge (Clarkson Covered Bridge, a red square on the map). The bridge & park with mill is a nice stop, but what caught our eye there was a sign for a Civil War Museum nearby. I don't remember the name of the museum (maybe carolinagal does), but it was a private collection this man started years ago, and a very good one. He was a wealth of information about local battles and all things Civil War.

[Sparkle]

Oh I'm passed that, but as I visit Alabama once a year I'll check it out next year. Covered bridges always make think of Snowball (Sheila) I'm pretty sure it was, or was it Fernie, somebody anyway that hit the top of the bridge with her RV and the man was yelling at her and she yelled back.
Who were you? I remember the story, but I'm confused about who told me.

[sharon]

Maybe Evie? Oh no, that wasn't a covered bridge that was an old gas station.

[snowball]

wasn't us Sparkles...and haven't heard of the Thing and we are in AZ for the winter but based on all this will by pass it if we are ever where it is
sheila